Learn how to discuss your well-being
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| 嗨大家好，我是李殷如。 |
| (Hài dà jiā hǎo, wǒ shì Lǐ Yīnrú.) |
| “Hi everyone, I’m Yinru Li.” |
| In this lesson, we’ll learn how to talk about well-being in Chinese. |
| Questions like “How are you?” or “How are you doing?” are very common in English, either as a greeting or a small talk. Well, in Chinese, people ask these questions as well, but typically, you’ll hear these questions when two people haven’t seen each other for a while or when they are generally concerned about the wellbeing of the other person. |
| For example, two neighbors have run into each other in the apartment lobby and they haven’t seen each other for months. Next, we’re gonna hear this dialogue between these two neighbours who haven’t seen each other for a long time. |
| 你好吗？(Nǐhǎo ma) |
| 我很好。你呢？(Wǒ hěn hǎo. Nǐ ne?) |
| One more time, a bit slower. |
| 你好吗？(Nǐhǎo ma) [enunciated] |
| 我很好。你呢？(Wǒ hěn hǎo. Nǐ ne?) [enunciated] |
| All right, now, let’s take a closer look at this dialogue. |
| First is the question: |
| 你好吗？(Nǐhǎo ma) |
| 你好吗？(Nǐhǎo ma) |
| You may have had seen this phrase, 你好 (nǐhǎo) as a very common Chinese greeting, which means “hello,” but literally, 你好 (nǐhǎo) is “you good.” So, 你好吗？(Nǐhǎo ma) is a question asking, “Are you good?” |
| 你好吗？(Nǐhǎo ma) |
| Or “How are you?” |
| 你好吗？(Nǐhǎo ma) |
| Now, the response, the first part is 我很好。(Wǒ hěn hǎo.) |
| 我很好 (Wǒ hěn hǎo) means “I’m very good” or “I’m good.” |
| And the second part, 你呢？(Nǐ ne?) |
| 你呢？(Nǐ ne?) is asking “How about you?” “And you?” |
| This is a very simple, but very useful phrase for everyday language, everyday conversations. So, if you wanna ask about, ask the other person the same question, simply say 你呢？(nǐ ne?) “And you?” |
| 你呢？(Nǐ ne?) |
| So, together, this dialogue is: |
| 你好吗？(Nǐhǎo ma) “How are you?” |
| 我很好。(Wǒ hěn hǎo.) “I’m good.” |
| 你呢？(Nǐ ne?) “And you?” |
| All right. So, on the other side of this board, I have listed a few other ways you can answer the question, 你好吗？(Nǐhǎo ma). Let’s take a look together. |
| 第一个 (Dì yī gè), “the first one” is: |
| 我还行。(Wǒ hái xíng.) |
| 我还行 (Wǒ hái xíng) means “I'm okay.” |
| Okay. So, if 我很好 (Wǒ hěn hǎo) “Im very good” is a 9 or a 10, 我还行 (Wǒ hái xíng) is probably a 7 or 8. |
| 我还行。(Wǒ hái xíng.) “I'm okay, I’m pretty good.” |
| So, 我还行。(Wǒ hái xíng.) |
| Also, you can replace the 行 (xíng) with 好 (hǎo). |
| 我还好 (wǒ hái hǎo) and 我还行 (wǒ hái xíng) have the same meaning. |
| The next one: |
| 我一般般。(Wǒ yìbānbān.) |
| 我一般般 (Wǒ yìbānbān) means “I’m so-so.” |
| So, 一般 (yìbān) or 一般般 (yìbānbān), you can either say 一般 (yìbān) or 一般般 (yìbānbān), means “average” or “so-so,” so 我一般般 (wǒ yìbānbān). |
| So, if 我很好 (wǒ hěn hǎo) is a 9 or 10, 我一般般 (wǒ yìbānbān) is probably a 5 or even 4. |
| 我一般般。(Wǒ yìbānbān.) |
| Next, 我不太好。(Wǒ bú tài hǎo.) |
| 我不太好。(Wǒ bú tài hǎo.) |
| Now, you see this negator, the negative word, 不 (bú), here. |
| And then 好 (hǎo) is “good.” |
| 不好 (bú hǎo) “not good.” |
| If I just say 我不好 (wǒ bú hǎo), may sound a little too straightforward or a little too harsh. So, to soften the tone a little bit, I can put this 太 (tài) in between 不 (bú) and 好 (hǎo). 太 (tài) means “too” (something), T-O-O, “too.” |
| So 不太好 (bú tài hǎo) is “not too good, not so good.” |
| 我不太好。(Wǒ bú tài hǎo.) |
| And the last one, 我老样子 (wǒ lǎo yàngzi). |
| 我老样子。(Wǒ lǎo yàngzi.) |
| 老样子 (lǎoyàngzi) is sort of a slang expression, which means “same old, same old.” |
| 老样子 (lǎoyàngzi) |
| 老 (lǎo) “old” |
| 样子 (yàngzi) means “appearance.” |
| So, “the old appearance” or “I’m just like before.” |
| 我老样子。(Wǒ lǎo yàngzi.) |
| Okay, now, let’s read these responses one more time. Feel free to read after me. |
| 我还行。(Wǒ hái xíng.) |
| 我还行。(Wǒ hái xíng.) |
| 我一般般。(Wǒ yìbānbān.) |
| 我一般般。(Wǒ yìbānbān.) |
| 我不太好。(Wǒ bú tài hǎo.) |
| 我不太好。(Wǒ bú tài hǎo.) |
| 我老样子。(Wǒ lǎo yàngzi.) |
| 我老样子。(Wǒ lǎo yàngzi.) |
| Good job! Okay. Now, in the table below, I listed all the well-being phrases in some sort of an order. |
| So, on the left side, on this side, I have the more positive ones, the good ones. |
| So, there’s 很好 (hěn hǎo) “good” or “very good.” |
| And then there’s 还行 (hái xíng) “good“ or “okay, pretty good.” |
| We can say 还好 (hái hǎo). 还行 (Hái xíng) and 还好 (hái hǎo) have about the same meaning. |
| So, on the right side is the not so good or could have been better ones. |
| Now, 一般般 (yìbānbān) or 一般 (yìbān). |
| Even though 一般 (yìbān) means “average” but when you say 一般 (yìbān), you kind of indicate that the things are not as good as you expected, so it’s just “so-so.” |
| 一般般 (yìbānbān) or 一般 (yìbān) |
| And then we have 不太好 (bú tài hǎo) “not too good, not so good.” |
| Okay. So these are more of the negative ones. |
| And then, in the middle is the neutral one, 老样子 (lǎoyàngzi) “same old, same old.” |
| If you were 很好 (hěn hǎo), you’re still 很好 (hěn hǎo). |
| If you were 不太好 (bú tài hǎo), you’re still 不太好 (bú tài hǎo). |
| This is 老样子 (lǎoyàngzi), okay. |
| And the way we use this well-being phrases is, first, we have 我 (wǒ) “I” since I’m talking about myself. And then directly after “I,” I put the well-being phrases here. So remember, for a lot of beginners, they tend to make the mistake of adding this word, 是 (shì). Let me put it here, 是 (shì), I’m “is/are” after this 我 (wǒ), but you do not need that, okay. Don’t put it there. We don’t need 是 (shì) at all. Simply 我 (wǒ) [well-being phrases]. |
| 我很好。(Wǒ hěn hǎo.) |
| 我老样子。(Wǒ lǎo yàngzi.) |
| 我一般。(Wǒ yìbān.) |
| Okay. And because in Chinese, you don’t have to worry about conjugations, so you can use 我 (wǒ) or any other pronouns or subject, names, and then well-being phrases. That’s how we talk about well-being in Chinese. |
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